A manufacturing system typically operates on parts, subassemblies, and/or assemblies that must be accurately located and held in place for manufacturing and assembly operations. For example, a sheet metal part, subassembly, or assembly may need to be accurately located and held in place to conduct assembly, welding, and inspection operations in the body shop of a vehicle assembly plant.
Part locating fixtures are normally used for this purpose. Part locating fixtures typically include a plurality of fixed pins that are configured to fit into a plurality of locating holes in the part and one or more clamps that are configured hold the part in place. The locating holes may have various sizes and/or shapes. Part locating fixtures are generally useable for only one particular part size and/or shape and usually need to be modified or rebuilt to locate and hold a differently sized and/or shaped part. Multiple part locating fixtures are typically required for the wide variety of parts and the wide variety of assembly and manufacturing operations in a manufacturing plant.